This study explored how teachers' feeling of self-efficacy in providing Social Emotional Learning (SEL) instruction helps students academic performance. Students' trauma, or adverse childhood experiences, can influence how academically successful they are (Brunzell et. al, 2018). One consequence of trauma in young children is emotional dysregulation, which affects their ability to adjust their behavior in a positive manner. In response, schools are implementing SEL to address emotional dysregulation and negative behaviors with significant results(Jones et. al., 2017). These programs focus on strategies to improve emotional self awareness and self management (Bridgeland et. al., 2013) in order to decrease discipline referrals and increase time on task for improved academic performance. This study is a mixed methods design and includes a quantitative survey of teachers feeling of self efficacy, a quantitative analyses of students reading pre and post scores calculated into an overall change score, and a qualitative phenomenological action research study in the form of teacher interviews that were coded and analyzed for understanding of the impact of social emotional learning provided to the students at the study site. Based on the data collection and analysis the following can be determined regarding the research question and sub questions for this study. Research Question: In what ways does students Oral Reading Fluency data correlate with a teacher's beliefs about self-efficacy in classroom instruction and social emotional learning instruction? Students' oral reading fluency data does not consistently correlate with teacher's beliefs about self-efficacy in their classroom and SEL instruction. Sub Question 1: How effective do teachers feel about their own instruction? Teachers in this study felt very effective based on their answers to the survey and interview questions. Sub Question 2: Do interviews with teachers regarding SEL correlate with Self-efficacy survey results? The interviews with teachers regarding efficacy in their SEL instruction did not consistently correlate with their overall self-efficacy scores from the surveys. Sub Question 3: Does Oral Reading Fluency data from students pre and post tests correlate with teacher self-efficacy beliefs about instructing in SEL? Reading fluency data did not directly correlate with the teachers beliefs about their own effectiveness in SEL instruction. Teachers' scores on the self-efficacy survey as well as their feelings of self-efficacy during the interview do not correlate with students' overall change scores as calculated by pre and post test data for many reasons. Teacher self reporting was the most significant issue in this study. Misreporting was due to personality traits, feelings of wanting to answer the right way for the study, being modest, or being overconfident about their abilities. Other options to consider are the amount of years of service teachers in the study had, whether the teacher felt SEL is a program only, the political view of SEL, the training provided to the teachers, as well as the teachers' buy-in to SEL as an overall school climate. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]